Friday, December 19, 2008

Power or Influence?


I have always thought that if I had a choice between being powerful of influential I would rather be influential. Influence can achieve the same task without the liability of fault or blame.

I think I have been blogging since 2003 ( yes my archives say 2005 but I deleted the old one and created this one then )and I don't get a lot of traffic. I would rather have a handful of thoughtful commenters I enjoy and have good conversations with than hundreds of mindless drivelers like the big guys get. I don't do small talk.

I am still amzed by blogging and I think it is one of the greatest things in human history. It is true democracy and I have been amazed, there are exceptions, at how well serious people manage to pretty much regulate themselves. There are no laws only common conventions yet it manages to regulate itself among serious folks. Now there a loons out there but they are the exception and if I don't like them I simply don't read them. At first I tried to be open minded and accepting but I simply cannot deal with sites like the Kos Kidz and Huffington. There simply is no intellectual appeal.

Anyway, I digress. What I find amazing is that any regular person has the ability to influence the entire society with a single well composed thought. All from their home without any effort. I spend more time commenting than posting and it has amazed me the reach one can have.

My first experience was a comment I made about a Peggy Noonan article before the 2004 election on the subject of the new normal. Don't recall the specifics but I discovers that my comment was quoted on Slate and the London Times. Total freak out when thinking about how many people in the world would read my thought. That is amazing.

What the point I am getting to is I find myself hearing something and wondering if they got that idea from me. Who knows who reads your comments.

Now blogging is like the imternational water cooler talk and Drudge is the watercoler. Today there is a link to an article about a CNN weatherman saying it is arrogant for us to think we are causing global warming. Now I have never read that before but I have used that term in amny a discussion on the Goracle cult discussions where I have used the term 'the arrogant hairless chimp' thinking he controls the weather. I know I did not borrow that idea from anyone because I have a long explanation of how I came about that. I deals with coyotes howking at the moon and primitive humans worshing the light of the night making offerings to please there god much like muslims still do. So I can't help but wonder if this guy read one of my posts. I did this at the London Times, GP and Moonbattery as well as many linked pages on something like InstaPundit or Free Republic. Know what I mean... you just wonder about things like that.

Another term I thought I originated was in arguments about the policy differenced between liberals and conservatives. That term involves job creation and why the rich should not be punished. "I have had many jobs but in all my life I have never been employed by a poor person". I heard Swan Hannity say that during the convention. Around that time I heard Newt Gingrich say something that was almost verbatim of a post Ihad made that was another one of those obscure philosohies of mind.

Now I don't want to come of as saying that it was actually me but I can't help but wonder because of the obscureness of the way I sometimes make my points in discussions.

Things that just make you go hummmmm. If true I find it amazing that we peons can through our dye into the social mixture. If true that is empowerment of the people. The real people. We the people.

Has that ever happened to you ?

4 comments:

nanc said...

there were some very good comments at van's last global warming post.

and yes, i've seen a few terms i THOUGHT i coined being used by others and have stolen a couple and am treated.

in a radical move back in the early 70's i pierced my right ear with three holes - thinking i was being a little frisky and rebellious. and although i was on my own, still had enough respect for my parents to remove the other two earrings when they came over or i went to their home. now, i don't know if i'm responsible for the piercing thing going on today, but i was the only one i knew of in life in the 70's with multiple piercings.

this blogging business is quite the tool - you see doctors mingling with plain folk and housewives corresponding with physicists - IT'S MARVELOUS!

but, as you know by an experience of mine - sometimes it's not such a good idea to get too close to people - when people you THINK are your friends dog you - that stings.

iopian - i love your site - you and my fern are two of the most underrated bloggers imho.

IOpian said...

Yes that was fun at Van's and some good one's until the dregs woke up. They remind me of hyena's circling a lion's kill.

Yeah I think some of the stuff happening to you would cause me to hunt them down and wring their necks. I just don't understand the childish maliciousness. As obnoxious as Dora can get I don't think she is that kind of person. For all her faults I think she can take what she dishes out and I just don't she her as vindictive... her trip is to reinforce her self image as a smart person... she is but in all the leftist delusional ways... on the other hand there are some whack jobs I've read on there.. especially those that follow you home from the Retort. I check out there from time to time and there are folks there with worm infested brains.

Personally I want to stay underrated unless I got to the point where I was making money and a living, then I might gain a tolerance and suffer fools gladly. MY dream job would be as a social commentator. I see what you go through and I just don't have your stamina.

Opinion blogs do not sell unless you get totally outrageous like Kos. The ones that do well are the Drudge news link echo chambers. But it is still cool that we can all at least be heard. So we devote more time commenting on those popular sites than blogging on our own. That's probably better exposure anyway.

I check my traffic and find that interesting. Of course I recognize you instantly and Phelonius. I see someone at RightWing News come in and scan me from time to time. during the election I was getting a Tempe AZ visit so I made sure to provide plenty of opinion for McCain :-) "You're blowing this man!" Fight, kick them because they are certainly going to kick you. This is war man.. get with it !!

Then there was the CIA, one from Alexandria VA,another from Herndon. Sometimes NASA, Harvard.edu was a regular for a while. Addresses that make you wonder if you are being monitored. They all come in and read but never coment. So assuming it was someone doing data mining I tried to provide them a nugget.

You just never know. Even made a standing offer to the Obama campaign to hire me as a 'Why that's a stupid idea' consultant but then I totally miscalculated how deep stupidity ran in the electorate.

But it is more personal therapy for me. Just an outlet to get my incredulousness out of my system. Sometimes providing a spark for others to start the fire.

But I refuse to dumb down. Been doing that all of my life and I am tired of it.

nanc said...

i've gone to the obscure side! like i stated in an earlier post - you will know them by their silence.

o.t. - have you ever been THIS lonely?

and, if you're looking to have some fun - go take the iq test obm.

nanc said...

p.s. - i never thought it was dora - besides that, she appears to be in luxemburg on business.